Some Hikmah on Mental Freedom
As a thought exercise, compare the thoughts in your mind to garments.
What would you do if you found yourself wearing a filthy garment? Would you keep smelling it? Would you keep it on for days or even years on end, smelling it ever more thoroughly? Would you go seek out an even more odious garment and put that on?
Of course not: indeed that would be absurd, madness even!
Yet why do we do that with thoughts? The ugly ones? The stinky ones? The disturbing ones? Philosophically speaking, we never go outside and assume every tree or bird we encounter is ours so why do we do that for the thoughts we encounter in our mind? The presumption that everything in our mind is ours has no basis in science or philosophy or religion:
Anas ibn Malik reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was in the company of one of his wives when a man passed by them. The Prophet called to him and when he came, the Prophet said, “She is my wife.” The man said, “O Messenger of Allah, I do not doubt you in the least.” The Prophet said, “Verily, Satan flows through the human being like blood.”
Sahih Muslim 2174It was narrated that ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Mas’ood said: The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “There is no one among you but a companion from among the jinn has been assigned to him.” They said, “Even you, O Messenger of Allaah?’ He said, “Even me, but Allaah helped me with him and he became Muslim (or: and I am safe from him), so he only enjoins me to do that which is good.” According to another report, “… There is assigned to him a companion from among the jinn and a companion from among the angels.”
Narrated by Muslim, 2814Ok, so we agree that we are not always in control of our thoughts and there’s even an irksome, Negative Nancy Jinn whispering ugly thoughts to us round the clock! (Is that weirdo the one who also keeps misplacing your keys?!)
Ok. What are some things we can do to get mental freedom? We accept our self is not to be confused with our headspace (which is turning out to be far more of a public place than we assumed).
If thoughts are like garments, replace a stinky garment with a clean one. Put yourself in a good mental headspace by thinking clean thoughts. There are many, many ways of accomplishing this I’ll jot down just a few:
Have a set of “clean thoughts” ready on the go. At times life can feel like a harrowing journey up a Himalayan mountain, and mountaineers don’t forget to bring extra air. Clean thoughts can include uplifting scriptures, positive affirmations, or even detailed day-dreams of personal success.
Meditate on divine attributes such as “wisdom.” Many ways of doing this, from simply chanting the word when ugly thoughts enter or better yet sitting down in a comfortable space and listening to uplifting music (e.g. happiness frequency) while chanting it.
Contemplate the beauty of life and the profundity of our inter-connectedness. It is the glory of our sole God and his love for us that lets us enjoy it and he is with us every moment and so are the righteous angels. (Such thoughts like these, deep and loving are especially likely to scare away the Negative Nancy Jinn, who seems to thrive on small and petty thoughts).
These are just some starting places! Apply them to your life with some discipline and you’ll kick Jinn butt and manifest good headspace and prosperity soon and with God’s beneficent, strong hand!
Also, remember: your thoughts never stop. You might not always notice them, but they’re always running just like your breath.
So it’s a question of will they be running for the amusement of the resident Negative Nancy Jinn (the one that tells you to reach for the second piece of Na’an and immediately after you eat it berates you) or to further your life in positive directions?